Mohammad Najibullah
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| “ | We revolutionaries must always be vigilant, especially when bandits are active and supported by Ronald Reagan's state terrorism. But we can trust our people. | „ |
| ~ Mohammad Najibullah |
Najibullah Ahmadzai (Pashto/Persian: نجیب ﷲ احمدزی; 6 August 1947 – 27 September 1996), commonly known as Najibullah or Dr. Najib, was the President of Afghanistan from 1987 until 1992, when the mujahideen took over Kabul.
Biography edit
Najibullah was born in 6 august 1947 in the city of Kabul, in the Kingdom of Afghanistan. His ancestral village is located between the towns of Said Karam and Gardēz in Paktia Province, this place is known as Mehlan. In his youth, Najibullah actively participated in massive protests against the capital's government, for which he was arrested twice. In 1969 he was arrested for the first time. In the trial, he was accused of "participating in illegal strikes and demonstrations", "violating public security and aggravating tensions", as well as "creating conditions to call the people to revolt" and "provoking riots and confrontations with the police". In January of the following year, he was arrested again for participating in an anti-American demonstration in Kabul in connection with a visit to the country by US Vice President Spiro Agnew. He was educated at Habibia High School in Kabul, St. Joseph's School in Baramulla, India and Kabul University, where he graduated with a doctor degree in medicine in 1975. He belongs to the Ahmadzai sub-tribe of the Ghilzai Pashtun tribe in Gardiz.
He had previously held different careers under the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and was a graduate of Kabul University. Following the Saur Revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Najibullah was a low profile bureaucrat: he was sent into exile as Ambassador to Iran during Hafizullah Amin's rise to power. He returned to Afghanistan following the Soviet intervention which toppled Amin's rule and placed Babrak Karmal as head of state, party and government. During Karmal's rule, Najibullah became head of the KHAD, the Afghan equivalent of the Soviet KGB. He was a member of the Parcham faction led by Karmal.
During Najibullah's tenure as KHAD head, it became one of the most brutally efficient governmental organs. Because of this, he gained the attention of several leading Soviet officials, such as Yuri Andropov, Dmitriy Ustinov and Boris Ponomarev. In 1981, Najibullah was appointed to the PDPA Politburo. In 1985 Najibullah stepped down as state security minister to focus on PDPA politics; he had been appointed to the PDPA Secretariat.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, was able to get Karmal to step down as PDPA General Secretary in 1986, and replace him with Najibullah. For a number of months Najibullah was locked in a power struggle against Karmal, who still retained his post of Chairman of the Revolutionary Council. Najibullah accused Karmal of trying to wreck his policy of National Reconciliation, which were a series of efforts by Najibullah to end the conflict.
During his tenure as leader of Afghanistan, the Soviets began their withdrawal, and from 1989 until 1992, his government tried to solve the ongoing civil war without Soviet troops on the ground. While direct Soviet assistance ended with the withdrawal, the Soviet Union still supported Najibullah with economic and military aid, while Pakistan and the United States continued its support for the mujahideen.
The 1990 constitution declared that Afghanistan was an Islamic state, and the last references to communism were eliminated. Article 1 of the 1990 Constitution said that Afghanistan was an "independent, unitary and Islamic state." Throughout his tenure, he tried to build support for his government via the National Reconciliation reforms by distancing from communism in favor of Afghan nationalism, abolishing the one-party state and letting non-communists join the government. He remained open to dialogue with the mujahideen and other groups, made Islam an official religion, and invited exiled businessmen back to re-take their properties. In the 1990 constitution all references to communism were removed and Islam became the state religion. These changes, coupled with others, did not win Najibullah any significant support due to his role at KHAD. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Najibullah was left without foreign aid. This, coupled with the internal collapse of his government, led to his resignation in April 1992.
Until 1996, in Kabul and other cities the slogan "Long live Najibulá!" This was due to the chaos prevailing in those years, which reminded people of the relative peace of the previous government. The former president's situation at the UN headquarters prompted several attempts at normalization, but no agreement was reached, he continued to live there. Najibulá took the opportunity to work on the translation of the book The Great Game , which talks about the struggle between Imperial Russia and Great Britain for influence in 19th-century Afghanistan.
After a failed attempt to flee to India, Najibullah remained in Kabul living in the United Nations headquarters until 1996, when the Taliban movement took Kabul. On September 26, 1996, after the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban extremists, the UN building was stormed by them and Najibulá and his brother were kidnapped, the Taliban abducted Najibullah and his brother from UN custody in the early morning hours of 27 September, they were taken to a house dependent on the Pakistani ISI, where they offered him the post of president of the new regime in exchange for signing a treaty to recognize the southern border of Afghanistan, the "Durand line". This was not recognized by Afghans as the legitimate border and signing that treaty would have been a serious betrayal, eventually their ideals rejected the option and then was severely beaten was severely beaten and castrated too later tie him o a truck, his brother received a more lenient treatment, there they tied Najibullah to the back of a van where it was exhibited until it was taken to a public square where they were hanged both there bastardized the body of najibullah by placing cigarettes and bills in their hands. The Mullah Mohammed Omar, the new head of the Kabul shura, declared that Najibullah was a communist and a the murderer of his people and that he had been sentenced to death by the Taliban; it was pointed out that mutilation of the body was inadmissible under any Islamic law, while the absence of a fair trial and the public exposure of the corpse aroused the aversion of many Kabulians. His body was transported to the provinces of Gardez and Paktia and then buried alongside the other members of his tribe.
By the 21st century however, public opinion turned positive and he is now seen to have been a strong and patriotic leader with a "normal" regime compared to his PDPA predecessors and the mayhem that happened after his ousting. In 2017 a pro-Najibist Watan Party was created as a continuation of Najibullah's party.